Title: Knowledge structures of organisational environments: study of perceived uncertainty

Authors: Juan Ramon Oreja-Rodriguez, Vanessa Yanes-Estevez

Addresses: Departamento de Economia y Direccion de Empresas, Facultad de Ciencias Economicas y Empresariales, Universidad de La Laguna, Campus de Guajara s/n, 38071 La Laguna (Canary Islands), Spain. ' Departamento de Economia y Direccion de Empresas, Facultad de Ciencias Economicas y Empresariales, Universidad de La Laguna, Campus de Guajara s/n, 38071 La Laguna (Canary Islands), Spain

Abstract: The main source of information in decision making is the individual mind. Given that importance, in this article we analyse how individuals structure their knowledge about the organisational environment in their mental models. We place our study in the Canary Islands and use a total of 482 executives. We found that decision makers design a simplified and schematised analysis. They place the variables in homogeneous knowledge structures. In this study, we identify these environmental structures, by considering the perceived environmental uncertainty. Following the cognitive approach to management, we defined the environment as dependent on perceptions. We found that the industry became a filter in identifying environmental structures.

Keywords: perceptions; cognition; organisational environments; knowledge; uncertainty; decision making.

DOI: 10.1504/IJKL.2006.009678

International Journal of Knowledge and Learning, 2006 Vol.2 No.1/2, pp.41 - 57

Published online: 04 May 2006 *

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